Newsletter Issue 2 (fwd and LONG) ACF Western USA Newsletter January 1995 1995 SCHEDULE OF ANNOUNCED TOURNAMENTS WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI date tournament location ca. Jan 15 Shootout in Old West Univ of Missouri Kansas City Feb 3 Wildcat Kansas State Univ (Kansas City) Feb 4 BYU Regional Prep Brigham Young Univ (Provo, UT) Feb 17-18 Cardinal Classic V Stanford Univ (Palo Alto, CA) Feb 24-26 CBI Regionals various March 3-4 ACF Regionals Berkeley, CA (others) ????? Iowa State??? ?? April? Fresno State Invitational LOW AIRFARES ON SOUTHWEST AND MARKAIR Sometimes attendence at a tournament hinges on travel costs. Usually driving is the least expensive way to go and some universityies rent out cars to STudent organizations for very low rates. On occasion, however, it is almost as cheap to fly and far less time consuming. It is worth calling South West, US Air, Markair or whoever to see if they have low rates for the weekend in question. Since they all have 1-800 numbers it is really worth the free call. RAISING MONEY TO ATTEND TOURNAMENTS There are two ways to go about this. Being independent fo the school and raising all your own funds via tournaments is one route. The other is asking the school for money -- but often tehre are strings attached. Many schools choose to take the first route but rely on teh oney, but administration to pay for expenses at the National Tournament (ACF or CBI). When a Dean hears that State University has been invited to a National Quizbowl tourney, often the dean will find the necessary miney to send the team. The best way to raise mnoney is to host a College tournament. If you figure on a $100 entry fee with discounts of up to $50, you should raise $50-75 from each participating team depending on how you weigh the discounts. If you host 12 teams and raise $600, that should be enough to go to two tournaments. Some teams also host high school invitationals with easier questions. This is a real good fundraiser because the whole club will moderate and you do not need to rely on much outside assistance. Howver some high schools will not pay $50 per team. Others will, depending upon the area where you are located. A good person to consult on the merits of high school tournaments is Marc Swisdak at swisdak@ucsub.Colorado.EDU. Marc has helped run the to provideU-MD Classic for high schools whish is a 32 team double-elim tournament. UPCOMING TOURNAMENT ANNOUNCEMENTS (from Brigham Young Univ) IT'S FREE! IT'S EASY! That's right, there's NO entry fee or packet requirement! Announcing Brigham Young University's second annual Perpetual Motion Invitational You CAN get something for nothing! Saturday Febraury 4, 1994 Provo, Utah Encouraged by the success of our tournament last year, we want to expand our tournament to provide free, high-quality academic competition with as many teams as possible. How can we promise something for nothing? QUALITY CONTROL No need to worry about experiemental formats, inexperieced staff, or poorly followed schedules. We've got three returning experienced tournament directors. And your participation in the Perpetual Motion Invitational comes with this guarantee: if there aren't enough volunteeres in every room by five minutes after the scheduled game time, the BYU team with the current best record will forfeit their game and keep score or moderate. COMMITMENT TO GROWTH Before the Perpetual Motion Invitational, there were no opportunities for teams in our region to play at a high level of competition for as little cost possible. Thus there is NO registration fee. We expect to have teams of all levels of experience, from BYU to Snow College (whose program is four months old). To ensure uniformity in packet difficulty and overall quality of competition, there is NO packet requirement. We encourage all participating schools to provide a packet (it's good for you), but there is no penalty or reward associated with packet submission. In an effort to provide a fair and fun competition for teams, packets will be written and edited with the following priciple in mind: The superior team should always win, but all teams should be able to score points. If you'd like more information, please contact one of these people: Jonathan Green Lynn Elliott greenj@yvax.byu.edu tlelliot@adm1.byu.edu ACF REGIONAL SITE STILL NEEDED If there is a school in the midwest or center of the country that would be willing to host the ACF Regional on 3-5 March 1995, please contact Ramesh Kanneppan at ramesh@nova.umd.edu. A site accessible from Texas would be especially desireable. Remember, the ACF gurus write the questions which means you do not have to go through the hassle of editing, requiriung invitational rounds be written by participants, etc. You just need to schedule manpower and a building in which to play. ALSO the ACf host keeps the proceeds (there is no fee involved) and can use the money to attend otehr tournaments. LASTLY, the ACF host automatically gets invited to ACF Nationals, regardless of whether you field a team in the Regional competition. So far the regional sites are set at South Atlanta (Ga Tech) Mid Atlantic/NE College Park, MD (Univ of MD) North Central ???? Iowa State ??? or Chicago ????? West Coast Berkeley Best of luck in competition this spring, Gaius Stern CAL BERKELEY (comments welcome)